Ep 32 - Hong Kong RISE Conference and Bucket Technology, a digital piggy bank platform

In this episode, we’re at the RISE conference at Asia's World
City, Hong Kong. We caught up with a company called Bucket
Technologies that aims to help us deal with the issues and costs
of handling physical change.


Francis Hwang, Daniel Kam, Mac Ling (left, Bucket
Technologies) and Chris Groshong (right, CoinStructive
Inc.)


Bucket is a "digital piggy bank platform" which aims to bridge
the worlds of coinless cash transactions. Bucket alleviates the
stress and significant costs associated with the production,
distribution and handling of physical coins.


Their mission is "to accelerate humanity’s transition to a
digital economy" as the world first global aggregator of coin
currency for consumers and enterprise users.


Our guests for today's show from the Bucket Team
include:


Francis Hwang, CEO of Bucket Technologies


Francis has over a decade of experience in creating, launching,
and managing successful businesses. Having always gravitated
towards enterprises and ideas that question and disrupt the
status quo, it was a natural step for Francis to start Bucket
Technologies. Coming up with the concept for Bucket over 10 years
ago, Francis finally set aside other ventures to focus and commit
to his mission of eliminating coins and alleviating the
environmental and governmental stresses from the production,
distribution, and management of coin currency.


Francis recently moved to Bentonville, Arkansas and when he isn’t
working or travelling for Bucket you will find him off-roading
with his wife Kristine in the Ozarks.


 


 


Daniel Kim, President and COO


Daniel is a successful entrepreneur who has launched and built
several businesses in the technology, managed services,
manufacturing, and hospitality/F&B industries. He has over 20
years of B2B/B2C sales and marketing experience within various
commercial sectors including cloud-commerce, telecommunications,
and graphic arts. Daniel regularly speaks and networks with
leading companies and organizations on topics such as leadership,
innovation, branding, and operations management.


When Daniel is not working he enjoys spending time with his wife
and 3 girls, cooking or going after big fish (literally, not
metaphorically).  


Mac Ling, Managing Director, Asia


Mac has over 15 years of technology and marketing leadership
experience in corporations, SMEs, and startups, in both the
United States and Asia. His personal mission of leaving this
world a better place than he found it made joining the Bucket
team an easy fit.  His ability to take technical solutions
and create simple value propositions for end users has served him
well in both B2B and B2C environments and is committed to
Bucket’s mission of eliminating coins and alleviating the
retailer and consumer stresses from the use and management of
physical coin currency.


Mac’s past experience includes leading Boost Mobile’s Digital
Media business, heading up marketing and service delivery for
i-Admin, Asia’s premier payroll outsourcing provider.  Mac
received his B.S. in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego, and an
M.B.A. from the Darden School at the University of
Virginia.  He is also a certified Marshall Goldsmith
executive coach.


After listening to this episode you will learn:




The origin story of Bucket and how the founders envisioned
the company




What Bucket is and what problem they solve




The extraordinary cost associated of dealing with loose
change




How Bucket made a critical partnership deal with a US bank
(same one Square uses) to help structure the stable coin and
adds liquidity




The current Point of Sale system have never been upgraded and
how they are going to add a bucket button on a POS system


Why they worry that people will not learn from history and
repeat previous mistakes



For show notes and more: LAB Radio